When you take the time to maintain your lawn at least on a weekly basis, waking up to an untamed lawn can be upsetting. But, did you know the Environmental Quality Division has a system in place that offers a solution?

John Chiasson has lived in his home just off Wilderness Trail in Lafayette for more than 30 years, and for a decade his family has dealt with the untamed property. “Fleas, snakes, rats, raccoons, you name it they, come out of there!”

The rodents are just about guaranteed in this neck of the woods, but that isn’t what really bothers Chiasson. “What scares me is the snakes! The other day, I went to my back steps and there was a snake about this long and was snapping at me to bite me, and I had to kill it”

After contacting the land owner and not getting answers, Chiasson came to us to find out what help is out there, if any at all.

Mark Pope, Manager of the Environment Quality Division, says, “The environmental division follows laws for tallgrass and messy property.” If you have a complaint, you need to give EQ the actual or nearest address to the problem. “What we do is we go out to verify there is a problem, from there once we verify, we have to go to the courthouse and find out who is the legal owner of the property.”

Once the owner is notified, they have five days to cut the grass.

Chiasson says, “We put it on the list that’s given to a contractor to have the actual grass cutting performed.”

Once that’s done, the bill is sent to the owner, if it isn’t paid within 30 days a lien is put on the property.

If you have a problem like this one, remember there are certain steps that must be followed. Call Environmental quality at 291-8529 with the required information.